5 May: Overseas player arrives and league games start

Overseas player arrives and league games start

Thursday, 5 May: Another big week at Dulwich. Firstly welcome to our new overseas player Majeed Jehangir (look out for his profile which will be on the web soon) who flew in from Pakistan this week. Please introduce yourself to him and make his stay at Dulwich memorable.Saturday sees the start of the Men’s league season in both the Surrey Championship (1sts at home v Old Emanuel, 2nds at Malden Wanderers, 3rds at DSG v Spencer and 4ths at Spencer) and the Kent Regional League (5ths at Roebucks and 6ths at DSG v Blackheath). Even the new 7ths may start next week.On Sunday we have a strong team in the first round of the national KO at Beddington, the 2nds at DSG Dulwich Kingstone, the Development XI v South Bank at DSG and the Ladies playing at home in their 2nd league match against Margate.We also have Colts matches U15 at Banstead (Sunday morning), U13s at Tadworth (Sunday morning), U11 pairs H v SR & Kenley(Sunday morning) U10s v Purley at DSG (Saturday) and the U9s at DSG v Alleyn & Honor Oak (Monday evening).Then finally the 1st round of the 20/20 competition at Alleyn and Honor Oak. 176 people representing Dulwich CC and the colts coaching programme enters its second week.

Wonderful weather and lots of cricket

Thursday, 5 May: Last weekend saw cricketers all over Dulwich dust off old gear and unwrap new. The colts coaching programme started and numbers in all age groups were higher than originally expected. The Royal Wedding and Bank Holidays fuelling the need to play cricket rather than distracting.

The 1s and 2s both played our local rivals Alleyn & Honor Oak for two wins. In the 1sts we bowled them out for 152 (James Soulsby 3 for and Anil Mahey 4 for). Anil as captain can bring himself on when the batting looks weakest to snaffle a few, perhaps All-Rounder is an appropriate term. With runs from Richard Farrow and James Soulsby we won by 5 wkts.

Across the trees the 2nds batted first and good runs from Gareth Cornick and Oliver Steward helped us to 210 for 6. The medium pace of Tom Peacock and Stephen Hale proved effective in a good win.

The 3rds lost v Finchley and the scores “177-5 innings closed (Abu Arabi 68*, James Chudley 50*)” tell us all we need to know – an early collapse, recovery but in the end not enough. The 4ths let St Clements score an impressive 261 off 40. Good runs from Tarun Mahey(46) but 4 run outs as we were 100 short. The 5ths had a winning draw against St James with new boys Matt Ball, Tom Bale and Muhammad Junaid all starting their Dulwich career well.

The ladies lost their first league game as Bells Yew Green scored 238 from 35 and we replied with 138-3. Sam Hulcoop top scored – a career best of 65. They had 2 very good county batsman that made the difference.

The Academy had a friendly against Long Ditton with experienced Mark Kelly and youngster Zobeh Mohammad bowling well. After more runs from the machine Farrow, Sunil Mahey – with a broken finger – and a Man of the Match performance from Rory Balfour , we won a really close game.

The Sunday 2s won scoring a massive 317 for 4 (Levi Olver 113no and Amer Saeed 89 in good form). Tom Coward took a few wickets as we bowled Goldsmiths out for 126. The Development Side beat Spencer by 44 runs with a Louis Hyde 50 and 5 wkts for Dan Edwards.

In Colts games, the U15s lost to Purley- a 4th wicket stand couldn’t be broken after 30s by Joshua Robinson and Ben Henderson. The U10As have played 2 games beating Banstead in a close game and then a slightly easier victory against Old Whitgiftians (cameo innings from Reuben Duncan and Louis Finegan helping).

The U10Bs attended the Esher Festival on Monday 2 May and performed very creditably. The boys acquitted themselves very well and were very competitive, winning one group match (against Chertsey) and losing two but by very small margins against teams that had obviously played together for a long time (Esher and Ashtead). Both U13s also played but I’m sorry I do not have results yet.

@MitchamCC@DulwichHamletFC@OfficialTmufc@MitchamCC our u12s were disappointed that their 2017 game at Cricket Green was washed out; believe our u14s and u16s are playing you there this summer, looking forward to it. We should try and get a girls’ game on at a venue with such a proud history of hosting women’s cricket!

Please note that due to floor replacement at Dulwich College Sports Centre there are no indoor nets this Sunday, 18th March. We await confirmation about the 25th March. Keep an eye on e-mails and website.

@PROACTIVE_Swk@lb_southwark Exciting times as all four teams in the semifinals hail from south of the river (Richmond sort of as it’s both sides of the river). Southwark play Greenwich and Bromley take on Richmond.....

In south London? Like cricket? Lewisham cricket winter training resumes tomorrow, ages 8-14, any level, all welcome, new players particularly so. Very nice set of coaches. Based in SE6. @ me for full details